Couple of 580Ex II questions

Helvegr

So I've been playing with a strobist setup a little bit. Just got a 43" umbrella yesterday. Couple of question came up.

1. Does the 580Ex II flash really not have a way to turn on a recycle beep? That seems goofy.
2. Just out of curiosity, is it possible to shoot high speed sync with the flash off camera? (In Manual) I noticed on my 5D m2, I see the curtain when I go over 1/160 sec. While the flash says its in high speed sync, the camera doesn't because the flash isn't attached it it.

Just wondering. I'm still pretty new to the flash stuff.

ziggy53

1) No "ready" beeps for the Canon flashes. For a Canon E-TTL II partially compatible flash with beeps you might try a high-end Metz. (I don't recommend Metz flashes for Canon cameras because there is a fair body of empirical evidence to indicate that Metz does not properly implement the distance capability of the E-TTL II specification.)

2) If you mean manual metering on the camera and HSS/FP mode on the flash then I believe you must have full communication from the camera to the flash for HSS/FP mode to work. That mostly means having the flash mounted to the camera's hot-shoe, or attached via an "off-camera cord", or using a master flash on the camera with an E-TTL slaved remote flash, or (possibly) using a full-duplex radio master-slave system (which relays the full set of flash communications wirelessly between camera and flash.)

I do recommend reading the flash manual as well as reviewing this tutorial series from Canon, starting with the second in the series and through the third in the series:

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/speedlite_tip_pt2_article.shtml
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/speedlite_tip_pt3_article.shtml

Also review the articles written by NK Guy regarding Canon flash automation:

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index2.html
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index3.html

pathfinder

WIth the OEM off camera flash cord, I believe you do retain HSS ability.

You can get much longer off camera ETTL compatible cords from Paramount- http://www.paramountcords.com/ttl.asp

The native flash synch speed for the 5DMK2 is 1/200th, and I would expect a 580EX II to work with that shutter speed without leaving a portion of the image unexposed. Some large studio strobes will not synch with the 5DMK2 faster than 1/60th according to page 104 in my manual for my 5DMk2.

You might consider sending a question to Canon Factory Service if you cannot get your shutter to perform with a 580ex 2 at 1/200th of a second shutter speed consistently.

NeilL

Ziggy and Pathfinder are correct to my knowledge and in my experience.

Are you aware that with HSS you lose a significant amount of light output? And that is further compromised if you use light modifiers on the flash as well. So the usefulness of HSS is rather narrow and it can be difficult to get the effect you imagine. When it does give you the result you want, however, it is unbeatable!

Neil

pathfinder

It is true that the total output of the speedlite decreases with HSS, but in that Strobist link Ziggy posted, the author said he just leaves his speed lights in HSS, as I do. I prefer HSS as my default, as it allows me not to be tripped by a reset shutter speed, due to needing a shutter speed faster than the native synch speed. If I runout of light with HSS, I can always turn it off and slow my shutter speed down, which also captures more ambient light.

Dan7312

There are some radio triggers, like the PocketWizard Mini and Flex, that preserve HSS, and second curtain sync, to remote flashes because, as Ziggy says, they maintain full communcation.

Also PocketWizard Mini/Flex appears to tighten up on the timing for HSS and gets more light out of the flash in HSS than Canon does. The max output is still limited, but just not as much. dp review (I think) did some testing that confirms this.

Helvegr wrote: »

So I've been playing with a strobist setup a little bit. Just got a 43" umbrella yesterday. Couple of question came up.

1. Does the 580Ex II flash really not have a way to turn on a recycle beep? That seems goofy.
2. Just out of curiosity, is it possible to shoot high speed sync with the flash off camera? (In Manual) I noticed on my 5D m2, I see the curtain when I go over 1/160 sec. While the flash says its in high speed sync, the camera doesn't because the flash isn't attached it it.

Just wondering. I'm still pretty new to the flash stuff.